You will have an in-class write (the synthesis question) on Tuesday 1/10/12 (Day 1) and Wednesday 1/11/12 (Day 2). You can prepare by looking at past prompts on AP Central. The synthesis question started in 2007 and is Question 1.

1/7/12
Data, Visualizations, and Primary Sources
For some interesting visual rhetoric (for your research project or otherwise), check out the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)'s index of multimedia--interactives, video, and audio. JAMA is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal.

The government has tons of valuable data, visualizations, and primary source material for research. A few of you are researching schools; you may start local and access the geographic information systems (GIS) center with maps on the School District of Palm Beach County. It has demographics, boundaries, and other interesting information. If you want to go bigger, check out the U.S. Census Bureau's //American FactFinder// website. One of my favorite sites that tracks people by geographic location is the Nielsen Company's PRIZM "market segmentation" page. Try entering in your zip code to find out how marketers see you and your neighbors.

Block 4's "Interesting Finds" page has some... well, interesting finds.

1/3/12
This is a REPOST from Brent Schlenker, from his blog Corporate ELearning Strategies and Development. His post is called "What Have We Learned about Training in over 70 years?".
http://elearndev.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-have-we-learning-about-training-in.html

"
My favorite design thinkerDan Roamposted a YouTube video on how a Differential System works on cars. I was blown away by the quality of the video and how confident I felt in understanding the complex system of a differential. After watching the video I noticed other videos in that right hand column of YouTube and so I watched another training video.

The videos I watched are in this post. Do me a favor. Watch them both and tell me your immediate gut reaction. Also, tell me if you had prior knowledge of the topic before viewing these videos.
What do they have in common? Can you see, or simply sense, a particular learning model? Or template? Or format? What about the development technology? Did it one work better than the other? What about the scripting? Put yourself in the shoes of the instructional designers. What methods does it look like they used to design and develop this training? Better yet, is this even training at all?
Ready? Go!"

1/2/12
The Tomorrow's College Series: "Don't Lecture Me" from American RadioWorks
*If you're at all having trouble in the course, please listen to this program. Outline the key points (if you do this physically, I will give extra credit. Consider other points of view in response (also worth extra credit). Talk to me about it-- preferably through the wiki (and, therefore, also with your peers).
Link to a transcript of the show.
(Hirsch, Baldwin, Douglass, Pinker)

Iconic photos: "Finding Osama" (photo of President Obama and his team in the Situation Room)
(Gladwell, Lepore, de Tocqueville)

"Alone Together", Professor Sherry Turke on the impact of technology on society.
(Pinker, Theroux, Foster Wallace)

For those of you interested in exploring more philosophy, I really recommend this book: Sophie's World. It is intended specifically for adolescent readers, and many students find it to be a good general introduction to Western philosophy.

You may also check out a lot of good information, resources, and links at the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Here's a nice entry on "aesthetic judgment". (de Tocqueville, Colapinto, Lethem, Foster Wallace, Eighner, Prager, Cisneros)

Also check out block 1's ongoing work on collecting basic info. for all of the authors. Another group of people should start a Works Cited that we can all contribute to and correct.

1/1/12
"Language as a Window into Human Nature" (RSA Animate of Steven Pinker talk)

Steven Pinker at Edge (called "A History of Violence", Edge Master Class 2011) (Pinker, Lepore, Gladwell, Machiavelli, Hirsch, Baldwin, Theroux)

"A 2011 Interview with Jonathan Lethem" (specifically on "The Ecstasy of Influence") podcast. You can get extra credit for translating this audio report into text, visuals, or some combination. Please share on the wiki (here or your class). (Lethem, Baldwin, Hirsch)

Someone who could compile these resources I'm posting in these blog posts could get extra credit. You will get extra credit if you can get more people to visit your content than here (the original source). No cheating.
--one possibility: organize these extra links according to which reading in the 17-piece packet we started research with (see "Readings for Research").
--another: make a central "extra credit" hub with links/information tracking all available extra credit as it comes up
--figure out what makes people click and start collecting some data when you do your experiments.

1/1/12 Happy New Year!

transcript of knowledge chip conversation.pdf

12/31/11
Interesting short video from Errol Morris for the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy from the New York Times. (Lethem, Foster Wallace, Cisneros)

Article on the Business section page from The Atlantic (12/30/11) that might interest those following "football"-related research projects.
Would love for you to comment/check-in if anything's useful to you here! -

cohenli (Gladwell, Baldwin, de Tocqueville, Foster Wallace)

Interview with Jay-Z from Fresh Air (from week of programming, "The Best of Fresh Air" for year's end). Also has a transcript. (Lethem, Theroux, Baldwin, Steele, Machiavelli, Prager, Cisneros)

A funny/sweet video "Watching Your Song Get His College Acceptance Letter!"

"The Letter C: Is It Necessary? An Interview with Doug Grime, Former English Teacher" on //KBOO, Community Radio//. by Ryan.
Creating a transcript of this radio piece, with some brief context info about the source at the beginning (in italics), and an MLA-formated citation, is worth extra credit. Another extra credit option is create an outline, closed-captions with visuals, or any other manipulation of the material to make it more "digestible".
(Lethem, Thomas, de Tocqueville, Baldwin, Hirsch)

12/29/11
For those of you continuing to read up on the conversation you're researching:
A sample conversation:
1. I saw this photo

2. I started researching it

3. From that article, used the source's sources to go to:
Here (NY Post article)
and Here (YouTube video from ABC News; "embedding disabled upon request").
The original footage is from the Associated Press. I'm currently working on finding that directly.

4. I realize I have some interesting sources: photo, video, comments on those, newspaper articles, and that there will probably be more. I start to dissect the topics/subjects this source brings up.
What do you think some of the subjects that come up are?

(Theroux, Steele, Machiavelli, Cisneros, Prager, Colapinto)

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Table of Contents

Great Speeches in American History: Presentations

Patrick Henry "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"

Block 1

Block 4

Block 6

Abraham Lincoln "The Gettysburg Address"

Block 1

Block 7: Star Wars-esque Gettysburg Address Video

The "If-You're-Still-Looking-for-a-Source-Here-It-Is" Post

Winter Break Blog Posts Archive

Winter Break Blog Posts